Thursday, May 13, 2010

Compare Two Online Articles


Labeled as one of the best college football players of all-time, Tim Tebow will have large expectations to live up too as an NFL quarterback. If you have watched ESPN or any other sports network lately, I’m sure you’ve heard something about whether this college god has what it takes to play in the NFL. The first article takes a look at Tebow’s performance in the Senior Bowl and draws conclusions from what they saw. The main criticism of this argument is that coming from Florida and their spread offense, Tebow doesn’t know how to take snaps NFL style (from under center). The article also states that is just the beginning of the play and should be second nature. If that’s all he’s worrying about is just getting the ball, what happens to all the other vital mechanics involved in being an NFL quarterback, such as footwork, reading the defense, leading a team, and football IQ. Evidence to back this theory up is Tebow’s two fumbles from taking snaps under center. However on the other hand, this article states that Tebow will be have a successful career. This article says that Tebow will be fine because he possess the three most crucial elements to an NFL quarterback, strength, accuracy, and speed. Evidence of this comes during the combine in which Tebow’s 40 time rivals some of the running backs. Now I do believe that Tebow excels in these three areas, I believe that in order to be successful you need more. A great NFL quarterback must possess command over basic mechanics and be smart with the ball…two things that Tebow lacks. Based on these two arguments I still believe that Tebow doesn’t have what it takes to make it in the NFL.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Response to Jessica's Blog Post

I recently read a very interesting blog post by Jessica titled Post 2: Prepare a meal & Response to "In Defense of Food, you can view it here. I really liked this post, her casserole sounded very good and I really liked how she got into the fact that people don't just eat for necessity anymore, it's becoming more and more a social event that everyone does. She brings up the fact that our relationship to food is related to our lifestyle and if we slow down our fast paced lifestyle, our eating habits will be better and will eventually become healthier. I feel the same way Jessica, the same way.

Preparing a Meal


Ever been hungry but not enough time to make yourself a really good, healthy meal? Well I recently found a great meal you can make that's still healthy! I learned how to make Mexican Skillet supper. You'll need to get 1 pound of beef, 1 cup of chopped onions, 1 cup of chopped tomatoes, 1 Tbsp of chili powder, 1 1/2 cups of rice, 1 cup of lettuce, and half a cup of cheese.

To start preparing for the meal you'll need to set up an area in your kitchen and always start by washing your hands. Once setting up a work station and getting your ingredients ready, you'll first one to start cooking the rice. While the rice is cooking, take the beef and brown it in a skillet with the onions, but make sure to drain any fat. Once browned, turn down the heat to medium, and add the chili powder and tomatoes then stir together.

After all this is done the rice should be done and mix in the cooked rice with the rest in the skillet, reduce the heat to low and cover with a lid. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Afterwards, you have to clean everything before you can eat. Once everything is clean, there you have it, Mexican Skillet supper, to serve, place in bowls and cover with the lettuce and the cheese.

While eating I read Michael Pollen's book In Defense of Food, one part that caught my attention was his claim that low fat processed food have actually caused more harm than good in America's food system. I agree with this statement whenever I eat, I always try to buy non processed foods but it's hard, for this meal I used organic tomatoes and unions in order to try to make it as healthy as possible. I also found another website, you can look at it here, the website talks about why processed foods are so bad and really relates back to Pollen and his argument that processed foods are not the way to go.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Self Evaluation of Demo Speech

I recently did a demonstration speech for my communications A class and after watching the video of my speech, feel that I could've done better. For my introduction, I didn't really explain the relevance of learning a card trick other than entertaining friends. I could have done more history into card tricks to do a better intro as well.

My steps I felt were pretty clear and went in a clear order but I should have gone over them slower in order for everyone to really understand what I was doing. I also should have explained them in a little bit more detail as well.

For my physical presentation, I felt I was pretty confident up there and I seemed like I had a lot of energy. People could also see me well when I was doing my speech because all the desks were moved out of the way as well. From the video I also feel that my voice was easy to understand but I could have maybe been a bit louder. My body language also seemed pretty good, I seemed pretty comfortable up there, though, I could have done more eye contact with everyone. My demonstration also could have been a bit slower in order for everyone to see the cards more clearly.

When it comes to my visual aid, or the deck of cards I did the trick with, I think I could have maybe showed them a little bit more clearly or maybe even given some people decks of cards so they could have followed me through the trick. But overall I think I used the cards effectively.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Peer Response: Austin Spohn

In Austin Spohn's blog, austinspohnlsc100s10.blogspot.com, he recently put up a new post about how to make pasta with red sauce, steamed vegetables, and chicken breast.

Austin goes into detail about how to marinade the chicken and with what items. He then goes on to explain how to boil water for the pasta until the noodles are soft enough and heat the sauce and then mix together. After giving directions on how to steam and cook the chicken breast and vegetables he talks about the worst step; cleaning.

Austin finishes up talking about Michael Pollen's book and how he agrees with Pollens argument that people really need to sit down and relax to really enjoy dinner. then gives us a website of another person who agrees. But I know if I made Austin's meal, it's one I'd be sure to enjoy.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

He endorses What?


I recently found an old endorsement of a product by Ozzy Osbourne. You would think it'd be of dark, satanic, or crude. But I can't Believe it's Not Butter raked in probably the last person you would think, Ozzy Osbourne. The ad appeared in 2006 that was shown throughout the UK. The ad didn't last long, but for me, I thought it was ingenious. I can't believe it's not butter made some very funny, random, entertaining commercials with Ozzy, and I'm not the Only one to think so, check out this person's comments on it here

Here's a link to one of the commercials to youtube, hope you Enjoy!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Response to In Defense of Food


In Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food Pollan has One central idea; Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants. His argument stems from seeing cultures almost cult-like addiction to new sudden food trends that try to put emphasis on being "healthy" and "all natural" when in all reality just having a diet of organic food in small portions that consists mostly of plants can be way more beneficial to your health.

Pollan brings up the idea of the "western diet" where he brings up the fact that many of the leading causes of death in the U.S. can be attributed to industrializing food which led to the rise of processed food and refined grains.

Another issue he brings to light is food sciences struggle to add nutritional nutrients to non nutritional food. This trend is now letting sugary breakfast cereals like Lucky Charms and Cocoa Puffs to proclaim they're healthy because of them being made with whole-grains. Which doesn't make them healthy to eat at all.

Pollan also argues that even the idea of nutritionalism has helped manufacturers justify processing foods. By implying that food science can help make "fake food" more nutritous than the real thing.

I agree with Pollan and his statements about food, current trends are leaning towards creating foods that are healthy when in fact, the healthy food is right in front of you; carrots, beets, lettuce, etc. But another issue entirely is exactly how do I stay away from processed foods? I found another blog that gives some helpful suggestions here. Hopefully these insights to how and what to stay away from may help you in your choice to Eat food. Not too much, and mostly plants.